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Friday, March 30, 2007

Someone has got me into Kasteel Cru. Brewed in Alsace with Champagne yeast, this beer is the clearest and freshest beer you might ever drink. It tastes a little like cider. Imagine you have stopped awhile at some Alpine way-station, with Strasbourg at your back, your boutique hotel in Torino some hours ahead, the Aston Martin DB8 parked outside, your beau by your side, resplendent in a polka dot cravat, cigarette holder nestled through her shapely fingers a la Dietrich etc. The comparable beers you might know are the Japanese lagers, Asahi and Saporo, but the comparison is lame: it is not quite like comparing Mont Blanc with Mount Fuji. It is altogether the connoisseur's choice, deserving of its 3 star 'cru' status, to be drunk out of a fluted beer glass while you are wearing your best bespoke shirt and your favourite cuff-links (this post is un peu pour les hommes), if not your finest pinstripe from Saville Row. Talking of ciders, the trendy thing in town is Magners, a fine Irish cider made from 16 varieties of apples. It feels that we've been missing something all this while: that beer should be about high quality in small quantities, rather than the opposite. It reminds me of my days in Belgium, perusing menus of 900 beers or more in one bar..